Victor William Gray MBE (1946 – 2021)

Abstract

Over the course of his professional life, Vic, as he was always known, was involved in many different roles for the benefit of the archives sector. So much so, that it is difficult to know quite where to begin and what to leave out. Vic was born in London in 1946, the only child of a working-class family (his father was employed on the London buses). Vic demonstrated his impressive love of learning from a young age. He won a place at King’s College Cambridge and graduated with a First in English in 1968, followed by the Archive postgraduate qualification at UCL in 1968/69. He never lost his love of books and literature, was always interested in new authors from across the globe, and maintained his high standards in his own writing throughout his working life and into retirement. From his first professional post, in Devon County Record Office, Vic demonstrated his unlimited capacity to get things done, not only to the highest standards, but also in a consensual and supportive way. Everyone who contributed to this obituary spoke of how Vic had encouraged them and provided practical support to help them to develop and improve as professionals and managers. He was a great manager himself, achieving results and giving credit to others, although he did not hesitate to also point out where improvement was needed or possible. He had a remarkable instinct for identifying when and where change was required and then, after due consideration, mapping out the way forward. In his second post, as Deputy at Suffolk Record Office from 1972 and in his first appointment as a head of service at Essex from 1978, he offered measured, unflappable leadership far in advance of his years. He never lost this capacity, even when inwardly he was disappointed or annoyed. Diplomacy and sensitivity were required in his early years at Essex, leading a service which regarded itself as the best in England, but which Vic could see was capable of improvement and modernization. By the time he moved on to a new challenge with the Rothschild Archive in 1993, he entrusted to his successor in Essex a flagship service which had a clearly mapped out future, both in terms of new buildings but also working methods which would become widespread across the sector over the next few years. His impact in Essex was significant, with strengthened branch arrangements, computerization, records management, the establishment of the Essex Sound Archive (conducting some of the early interviews himself) and the fledgling ARCHIVES AND RECORDS 2022, VOL. 43, NO. 1, 111–114 https://doi.org/10.1080/23257962.2022.2042677